subarctic ideations

I'm spending my last days in the south, directing my camera north observing how Iceland is rifting apart as a consequence of a local volcanic event that has been going on for at least seventeen million years.

Reykjanes is a unique place in the solar system where plate tectonics are visible on a human scale. Here one can detect how the outer shell of Earth is divided into several plates that glide over the mantle over a long time. Sixty million years ago the gigantic North Atlantic plate broke off into several ridges causing them to drift apart opening up rifts where magma rises to the surface forming the crust beneath my feet.

Explosive eruptions occurred on the coastline resulting in a formation of two tephra craters which spread ash across the peninsula. These eruptions are dated to the early 13. century and caused havoc among the children of the settlement who ever since have had to weigh a permanent battle with the elements on this remote cape in the North Atlantic.